Organization of work in oncology – multidisciplinarity, multiprofessionality, quality and multiplicity
Abstract
Background: Health care system in Slovenia has not fully defined all liabilities to cancer patients at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. No official documents describing precisely the mission of oncology and its tasks to be performed at each individual level have been so far available. Given that we are lacking an adequate national cancer control program and that the management of a cancer patient in Slovenia is included in the compulsory health insurance system. Our health care as well as health insurance policy should have long ago accepted the challenge of taking more decisive steps. The quality of management of cancer patients is as much dependent on medical proficiency (knowledge) as on organization of work at the primary and secondary levels. The major critique addresses particularly undergraduate and postgraduate education, i. e. the fields that have not been touched by the changes in the epidemiologic view of morbidity for several decades.
Conclusions: The prerequisites in oncology, such as multidisciplinarity and multiprofessionality, are considered as new added values which should have a direct effect on the quality and multiplicity of individuals and institutions that are likely to be included in diagnostic and therapeutic networks. In oncology in Slovenia, the views on multidisciplinarity are not consistent, multiprofessionality has not yet entered our conscious awareness, quality assurance is often out of control, whereas multiplicity is history-based. It is high time that health care policy steps in and takes adequate measures in the management of cancer patients. The first prerequisite is to set up a national cancer control program and, of course, to appoint supervisors who will be in charge of (as the term indicates itself) supervising the implementation of the program. Its smooth implementation can only be ensured by applying a uniform information system, thereby also assuring a uniform evaluation of costs.
Downloads
References
Bosanque N, Sikora K. The economics of cancer care. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2006.
Ganz AP. Cancer survivorship today and tomorrow. Springer; 2007.
Verdecchia A, Francisci S, Brenner H, Gatta G, Michelli A, Manogone L, et al. Recent cancer survival in Europe: a 2000–02 period analysis of EUROCARE-4 data. Lancet Oncol 2007; 8: 784–96.
Anon. A strategy for cancer control in Ireland. National Cancer Forum, Department of Health and Children; 2006.
Anon. Strategies to improve and strenghten cancer control programmes in Europe. Geneve: World Health Organization; 2004.
Posvetovanje o državnem programu nadzorovanja raka. Ljubljana: Onkološki inštitut in Ministrstvo za zdravje RS; 1996.
The Author transfers to the Publisher (Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal) all economic copyrights following form Article 22 of the Slovene Copyright and Related Rights Act (ZASP), including the right of reproduction, the right of distribution, the rental right, the right of public performance, the right of public transmission, the right of public communication by means of phonograms and videograms, the right of public presentation, the right of broadcasting, the right of rebroadcasting, the right of secondary broadcasting, the right of communication to the public, the right of transformation, the right of audiovisual adaptation and all other rights of the author according to ZASP.
The aforementioned rights are transferred non-exclusively, for an unlimited number of editions, for the term of the statutory
The Author can make use of his work himself or transfer subjective rights to others only after 3 months from date of first publishing in the journal Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal.
The Publisher (Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal) has the right to transfer the rights, acquired parties without explicit consent of the Author.
The Author consents that the Article be published under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 (attribution-non-commercial) or comparable licence.